Superman: The Legend of Metropolis
by LordofGoodness
Summary: Superman has become famous as a force of good, but Mongul sends eight warriors against him to attack Earth. As a new battle begins, Superman must face these enemies and uncover the truth behind Mongul's plan.
1. The Adventure Begins

It was a starry night at the North Pole. There had not been storms for weeks, facilitating things for explorers and fishermen who braved into the frozen wastelands of the north to make a living. But in the farthest reaches of this snowy environment lie a massive crystalline structure. It was a magnificent castle made of crystals more beautiful and shining than even the most beautiful of diamonds. To many, this place had only one name: the Fortress of Solitude.

Amongst the Fortress' walls and corridors lied a giant room full of computers and devices, the control room. For the technologically uninitiated, this room maintained the Fortress' vital functions. The Fortress was a body, and the control room was the brain. The room's walls, decorated with shades of white and gray, opened to reveal the Fortress' owner. The Man of Steel, the world's greatest protector, Superman.

Superman had been spending more time than usual in the Fortress. Between his life as a reporter and his activities with the justice League, Superman had barely the time to be in some adventures of his own. In fact, he barely remembered the last time he fought a villain on his own and not being part of a team. This was not to say he did not enjoy the companies of his friends and fellow heroes, but he recently had entertained the idea of confronting a threat all by himself. Perhaps this was too much to ask, but then again, perhaps not.

As Superman walked out of a room, he crossed a small walkway above a large pit. The walkway led to a balcony illuminated by night light. A small robot hovered behind Superman; it was small, barely half Superman's height. It was painted white with blue and red accents on its chest. His mechanical eyes were in the same blue tone as Superman's.

"Superman, I just received a call from Miss Lane." said the robot. "She just arrived at the Daily Planet and informed that you had taken a leave of absence to your boss."

"I'll try to get to work as soon as possible, Kelex." answered Superman. "The Supercomputer picked up an escaped inmate from Stryker's Island is causing trouble in the Metropolis harbor."

"What do you want me to tell Miss Lane if she calls back?" asked the robot while Superman went into the balcony.

"Tell her I'm busy with my other job." Superman stood in the balcony, silently seeing as the night stars danced on the sky. "It's going to be a very exciting day for me." He crouched down a little as gusts of wind formed around his body and his cape began dancing with the wind. In a few seconds, the Man of Steel had taken flight.

The blue paladin acquired more speed the more time he spent in the sky. He had just broken the supersonic barrier; the Fortress of Solitude was long behind. Superman enjoyed flying, the breeze on his face, the sensation of freedom; it made him feel invincible, more than he already was. A few more seconds passed and the night became day. The white rays of the moon became yellow rays of the sun. It was dawn. The North Pole had become the city of Metropolis.

Crossing buildings and skimming the busy streets of Metropolis, the Man of Steel could easily guess it was approximately 9:00. The shining City of Tomorrow was full of activity; people going to work, kids going to school. In fact, Metropolis was considered the busiest city of America; it was more active than New York, if that was even possible. Shaking off this warm feeling of peace, Superman knew he had a job to do.

"Master Kal-El." said a voice.

"I hear you, Kelex." replied the hero. "What do you have for me?"

Back in the Fortress of Solitude, Kelex was operating the Supercomputer with the speed and precision only a Kryptonian robot was capable of. Aside from being the Fortress' caretaker, Kelex also worked as mission control for Superman, supplying him information about villains and crimes in progress. In order to talk to Superman, Kelex transmitted his voice in a frequency only Superman's enhanced hearing could perceive. "I have searched the Metropolis Police database and found recent activity of mercenaries smuggling illegal weapons all over the Eastern Seaboard." Kelex kept typing on the Supercomputer. "The most recent trade happened in Metropolis three days ago."

"Can you find anything about who is behind this smuggling trade?"

"No. Whoever is behind this, he must have contacts within the authorities to avoid looking implicated in these activities."

"Oh, great, let's get to work." Superman flew to the nearest ship docked in the port and used his X-ray vision on the ship's crates. To his surprise, however, Superman could not see inside the crate. "Lead." Superman thought. "Somehow the terrorists knew I was gonna get involved and took precautions." If Superman could not use his X-ray vision to find the weapons, he had to resort to the old-fashioned way. With his speed, however, Superman should finish with time to spare.

Superman hovered closer to the crates to open them, but suddenly, all the crates in the ship began shaking. Superman looked around him and found himself surrounded with three gigantic flying machines armed with tentacles. Using his super-hearing, Superman could listen to the heartbeats coming from inside the vehicles: they were manned. Although he was outnumbered, Superman did not lose resolve.

"Listen up, everyone." Superman said. "I'm not here to fight, but these people, all people, are under my protection. Power down and let's talk." There was no aggression in Superman's words. After all, he was there to protect, not to provoke.

"You want to talk?!" replied a soldier inside the machine, laughing. "Then listen to what I have to say."

_Supervelocity railgun - power level 100%. Safeties disabled. Free fire mode engaged._

In that moment, the massive robot shot a large white beam that hurled Superman to an empty vessel in another side of the dock. "Whoo! Alright! Did you see that shot, baby!?" The pilot was in joy that the mighty Superman could be hurt by his new toy.

"I tried to be reasonable" thought Superman, getting back on his feet. "But if I didn't throw the first punch, I will throw the last!" Then, at lightning speed, Superman rammed the robot.

_Catastrophic system failure. Reactor offline. Eject. Ejeckkkzkzkkt…_

The robot's cockpit began shining with red lights. "Oh, crud! I'm bailing!" shouted the pilot in a panicking voice. But in that moment, Superman tore open the canopy with his bare hands. His eyes glowed red with heat vision.

"Wait, I'm not done with you." Said the Man of Steel with an intimidating tone. Then, he grabbed the pilot's parachute strings and hanged him up several miles above the ocean. Superman took a good look at the pilot: he had a U.S. Army uniform. The pilot began screaming and crying for his life. "What are you doing here? Who sent you?" Superman spoke in a tone that mixed anger with calm.

"Be…."

"What?"

"Behind you." The pilot pointed a finger above Superman's shoulder. As Superman turned back around, he found the other two mechs moving in on him. The Man of Steel dropped the soldier to the sea, but his parachute opened in time.

"Mech One is down! Move in!" said another pilot.

"Deploying Hellstreak missiles." Replied the third pilot. The two mechs fired volleys of missiles at Superman. In a few seconds, Superman easily tore the missiles apart with his fists and heat vision. "Hellstreak missiles – negative effect!"

"Deploying infrasonic weaponry!" The mechs emitted a large soundwave. Superman's super-hearing was being used against him. The blast threw him to the water. "Not so tough after all." Then, one of the robots grabbed Superman and pulled him from the water, while the other kept hitting him with the sonic weapon. Shrugging off the pain, Superman tore the robot's arm apart.

Cutting the sonic weapon in two with his heat vision, Superman easily destroyed the two robots and got the pilots out of their cockpits. Superman hovered to the dock, finding the first pilot still in shock after his defeat. "So, where were we?"

"Stay back!" replied the soldier, tried to get away as far as he could from Superman.

"Calm down. I just want to talk to you." Superman was getting startled by the soldier's voice. In that moment, the soldier suddenly fell down to the floor. Superman rushed to his side and saw his eyes were completely blank. His X-ray vision picked no brain activity or heart rate. Every cell in his body had stopped working. He was dead. Superman was confused; the soldier was fine just a few minutes ago. What exactly caused him to suddenly die?

Before Superman could do anything, however, he found himself being hit through a wall, landing inside a warehouse. As Superman struggled to get back on his feet, he got a good look at his attacker. "Parasite."

The towering purple monster laughed. "Superman, I've been waiting a long time to drain the life out of you." He punched Superman three times in the face, he was a about to hit a fourth time but Superman blocked the hit and threw him back. Parasite recovered and lunged at Superman, biting him in the neck and absorbing some of his energy. "Now we are even."

"Not for long" Superman pushed him back with a blast of heat vision. Superman then lunged at him and rose up to the sky, breaking the roof. Airborne, the two opponents lunged at each other, with Superman kicking Parasite in the stomach. Parasite countered by blasting him in the head with heat vision. Then, he went back to the dock and grabbed a large ship, throwing it at Superman.

Although Superman was able to catch the ship and gently put it down, Parasite caught him off guard and continued hitting him in the face. Angry, Superman grabbed Parasite and uppercutted him as high as he could. As Parasite reached the lower atmosphere, Superman hit him again with a hammer fist, sending him crashing down to the ground.

Using his arctic breath, Superman encased Parasite on ice. He then stood in front of him. "Who sent you here?" A tone of aggressiveness was raised on his voice.

"Mongul." Parasite said.

"What?" The Man of Steel asked. "What does Mongul has to do with the weapons trade?"

"He doesn't care about petty conflicts." Parasite answered. "He made this little show just for you, to test how strong you are." He coughed up a little. "Wait until his strongest warriors get you. Whoever kills you will get wealth and power." Parasite laughed up a little and then passed out. A small device dropped from Parasite's mouth. The Man of Steel picked it up and from the looks of it, perhaps it contained the answers it needed.

Superman stood back a few steps from Parasite. He knew he was not going to get any more answers for him, at least while was out cold. Deciding to let the police take it from there, Superman flew away from the docks. Still, there were something amiss for Superman. Who were those warriors Mongul had sent after him? What did Mongul want? As he left Metropolis, Superman returned to the Fortress of Solitude.

To be continued…


	2. Magog Attacks

Shortly after defeating the Parasite, Superman had returned to the Fortress of Solitude within the blink of an eye. He decided not to interfere with recovering crews when they collected the wreckage of the military hardware the mercenaries had used in the earlier engagement. Superman did not want to cause an international controversy. He had already destroyed legitimate U.S. weapons and he did not want to be seen involved in the mercenaries's agenda.

During the fight, he also had acquired a datachip attached to Parasite's neck. From what came out of Parasite's filthy mouth, Mongul had recruited the galaxy's most dangerous fighters to hunt down Superman. As the Man of Steel sat down in front of the Supercomputer, Kelex hovered beside him.

"Master Kal-El, I have intercepted police reports stating that the Parasite is under custody." Said Kelex.

"Good, but we have other things to take care of, Kelex." replied Superman, showing the datachip. "Parasite said the whole thing was a distraction and Mongul was behind everything. This whole thing was a test."

"A test?"

"Yes. Parasite was just the beginning. Mongul has sent eight assassins against me." Superman inserted the chip into the Supercomputer.

"Who are the assassins?" Kelex's voice sounded with a tone of concern.

"Maybe this thing has the answers." The Supercomputer's screens displayed progress bars and pictures of Mongul's imperial seal. It was definite proof that Mongul was behind this. A few seconds later, Superman and Kelex saw a towering figure framed in shadows, sitting in a throne. His skin was in a yellowish orange tone and his eyes were bright red. He was wearing an armor that combined the red and white colors. Superman and Kelex quickly recognized the figure. It was Mongul.

Mongul stood up from his throne and walked towards the eight warriors and gave them datapads that contained information about their collective assignment. The lights on the room they were in were turned on, allowing Superman and Kelex to see Mongul's servants. Upon watching the killers' faces, Superman recognized some of them. Others were unknowns to him. Superman could describe him by his earlier experiences with them or with the data supplied to him by the Supercomputer.

"I gathered you here today because I need you to defeat the strongest enemy I have ever encountered." Said Mongul. "He lives in a backwater planet known as Earth, serving as protector of its sentient population. He is known as Superman."

The first one was a large man, almost as tall as Mongul. He was encased almost completely in metal and his fists glowed green. "John Corben… Metallo." Superman quickly recognized him. "We've crossed paths before. Former military, subject of a failed experiment to produce supersoldiers."

The second one was another large man, midly taller than Metallo. He wore a yellow and black containment suit and his head had no flesh. It was only a skull wreathed in green flames. "Albert Michales a.k.a Atomic Skull. He was exposed to radiation. He has enhanced physical strength and can emit radiation from his hands and mouth."

The third one had the looks of a red-haired woman, but she had four insect-like arms. Four insect wings extruded from her back and her eyes were slitted. "This one is a face I don't recognize. Insect Queen. Ruler of a colony of alien insects. She can secrete a special kind of toxin lethal to any known lifeform."

The fourth one was a dark-haired woman. She wore a black and grey armor adorned with Kryptonian symbols. "Faora. One of Krypton's deadliest soldiers. She was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone before Krypton was destroyed. Strange, the Kryptonian population database had no prior information on her."

"It would appear the Council erased all information on her before she was imprisoned." replied Kelex. "

"First Kara, then H'El, and now Faora?" mused Superman. "How many other Kryptonians could have survived, Kelex?"

"Kryptonians were mostly located in the homeworld, but it had been thousands of years since they established colonies in other worlds." Explained Kelex. "After the civil war, the colonies seceded from the Kryptonian Council and established their own kind of government. By the time the homeworld exploded, no side knew what the other was doing."

"Moving on, then." Superman stared at the fourth figure, a man wearing some sort of containment suit. "Nathaniel Tryon, Neutron. Similar powers to Atomic Skull, but he has to be contained in that suit, otherwise his powers would go unstable."

The fifth figure was a large man wearing a horned helmet, similar to those worn by Vikings. "Magog. Hailing from a parallel universe, he has enhanced physical strength and his staff can emit energy blasts."

"I take it this is not the first individual named Magog you have encountered, Master Kal-El?" Said Kelex.

"And I doubt he will be the last." Superman replied. The sixth figure was a large red-skinned figure with green eyes, almost as tall as Mongul. "Amalak. Bounty hunter. The last member of a race destroyed by the old Kryptonian empire. I imagine working with Faora will be difficult for him, to say the least."

And suddenly, two of Mongul's minions brought a large, monstruous figure in front of Mongul. He had large bone protrusions extruding from multiple parts from his body and his eyes were blood red, with no discernible pupils. This figure was very known to Superman. "Doomsday. How the heck did Mongul got him to the Phantom Zone?"

"The technology to access the Phantom Zone is not exclusive to Kryptonians." said Kelex. "Perhaps Mongul developed a Phantom Zone projector independently or a Kryptonian supplied him with information to build one." Having reviewed the assassins, Superman shut the screen down and stood up from his chair. Kelex hovered beside him. "Eight assassins are after your head, Master Kal-El. What are you going to do?"

"I will go after them when I have the time. For now, I have other things to do."

_Metropolis – United States East Coast_

It was a bright, sunny day at Metropolis. With the minor exception of Superman's earlier confrontation with the mercs at the harbor, nothing could disturb that peaceful day. At the Daily Planet, however, peace was a rarity. Reporters were busy chasing after stories, secretaries were answering calls from reliable and not-so-reliable sources and the senior staff was trying to choose which story would make it to the front page.

"Great Ceasar's ghost!" screamed Perry White at his office. "Where the heck is Kent!?" Perry stood up from his desk and put his cigar away from his mouth. In front of him sat Lois Lane, star reporter, and her photographer, Jimmy Olsen. "Why can't your boyfriend arrive to an employee meeting on time, Lois?"

"You're asking the impossible, Chief." replied Lois with a witty smile.

"If Kent doesn't arrive in the next five seconds, I will cut his wages by half for the next five months." Perry raised his voice again. "Five!"

Meanwhile outside the Daily Planet, a young girl was playing with her ball in the middle of the street. A taxi was driving nearby, but in that moment, the driver lost control. He could not turn in time, his brakes had been broken. As soon as the taxi could even touch the girl, however, a red-blue blur took the car away from her. The girl did not even see the car coming.

"Three! Two!"

"Hold the presses!" said Clark Kent, straightening his necktie, running towards Perry's office. Then, he slipped on a piece of paper and fell right in front of Perry's desk.

"Kent, where have you been!? I've been trying to reach your phone." Perry was angry, which was normal by Daily Planet standards.

"Sorry, sir." Clark fumbled. "I was working in that Intergang story. I must have left my phone on vibrate and I lost track of time."

"Yeah, well, you'll have to save that story for later." Perry sat down on his chair. "We have a new scoop. Superman took down a gang of mercs and uncovered an illegal weapons trade right in our harbor. Superman attempted to arrest them but they died under mysterious circumstances, right before Parasite entered the scene. Kent, I want you to get all the info we can find on these terrorists. Olsen, you'll go to interview the police and see if you can find someone under the terrorists' payroll. Lane, you'll get the Superman exclusive. Now move!"

"This shouldn't be too hard." Jimmy said as he grabbed his camera.

"Don't screw this one up, Olsen." Perry put his cigar back into his mouth. "Or you'll get back to the copy machine."

"Yes, sir." Jimmy sighed.

Clark, Lois and Jimmy got out of Perry's office. As Jimmy went to do his job, Clark and Lois went to Lois' cubicle in order to do some research about their scoop. "You could have told me Perry had called for a meeting, Lois." Clark said. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of Perry's goodwill."

"With your speed and hearing, I knew you would make it on time, Smallville." Lois answered as she began writing her story on the computer. "Besides, you're one of the best reporters here. Perry is not gonna fire you."

"Yeah, it would be a pain in the neck to find a journalist in this town who is not under Luthor's payroll." Clark replied in a deadpan tone.

"Exactly." Obviously, Lois took it as a sincere comment.

After that, it was a pretty standard day for Clark and friends. Looking for sources, doing interviews, beating down some mobsters who did not take kindly to reporters getting into their business, the story was printed on schedule. By nighttime, Clark and Lois returned to their apartment. During dinner, Clark told her about Mongul's threat and the eight assassins he had sent after him. Considering their line of work, Lois wanted to write a story about this, but Clark had other ideas.

"Maybe I should leave." Clark said as he put on his pajamas.

"Don't say that, Clark." Lois replied as she put on her sleeping robe.

"But what if people get hurt, Lois? Mongul sent those people after me. If Superman fights one of these assassins in the city, someone might get hurt."

"Clark, don't you think you're being paranoid?" Lois said. "I mean, it's been five years since you and the Justice League stopped Darkseid, and the public accepted you. The President actually likes you, they built a statue in your honor at the park and the Mayor will give you the key to the city in a few months. People trust Superman, Clark. Stop being so angsty."

Clark took off his glasses and put them in the drawer. "You're not even concerned that I might get hurt, are you?"

"Oh, please, Doomsday killed you once and all he did was making you angry." Lois kissed Clark in the cheek.

"Okay, maybe I should calm down a bit." Clark stopped his rambling. Then, he and Lois got into the bed.

It was a peaceful night at Metropolis. Clark and Lois cuddled in bed together, Lois burying her head beneath Clark's chin. In that moment, a small rumble woke the couple up.

"What was that?" Lois asked.

"It's probably just a small tremor." Clark answered. But in then, the rumble hit again, and again, and again.

"More like an earthquake." Lois said. "We have to get out of here." They got out of bed as soon as they, but before either of them could notice, two strange figures broke through the apartment's window. They were metallic in shapes and their eyes were bright purple.

One of them lunged at Clark, throwing him to the ground. Getting a close look at the thing, Clark realized it was a robot of some sort. The other one tried to slice Lois with its claws, but Lois dodged it and ran to her drawer. She grabbed a handgun she had hidden there in case of emergency and shot the robot as fast as she could. The bullets did not even scratch it.

"Crud!" she shouted. The robot closed in on her, but Clark grabbed its neck and threw it over the window. He also tossed the first robot out. As Clark and Lois gasped for air, they looked over the broken window and watched a whole group of similar-looking robots swarming over buildings.

"I have to go." Clark said while looking at Lois.

"Okay, be careful." Lois kissed him in the lips. Within the blink of an eye, Clark put on his armor and took flight. Lois grabbed her phone and made a call with the speed dial. "Jimmy, it's Lois. Grab your camera; we've got work to do."

Gaining speed, Superman ripped the robots apart with his bare hands or cut them in half with his heat vision. He took some robots clinging to the side of a building and threw them to the air, slicing them with his heat vision. Then, he flew down to the street and froze an entire squad with his cold breath. A police team intercepted a group of robots and attempted to shoot them down, but realized their guns were useless. Fortunately, Superman dispatched the robots and made sure the cops gathered with the rest of the Metropolis Police Force to regroup and strike back.

"Master Kal-El." said Kelex, relaying from the Fortress.

"Kelex, where did these guys come from?" Superman asked.

"I will attempt to locate the attack's source." Kelex answered. "In the meantime, I suggest you be careful. Enemy forces converging on your position."

Kelex's warning proved true. The robots had become aware of Superman decimating their numbers and began concentrating a large number of their forces on him. Two robots charged at him, but Superman tore them apart. Then, more robots attacked but Superman easily shrugged them off, throwing them against building walls. But more and more robots began piling up on him, until Superman was dragged to the ground. A few seconds later, though, Superman broke free of the pile, unleashing a powerful blast of heat vision that disintegrated the robots.

"Master Kal-El, I have located the source of the attack."

"Where?"

"The Metropolis river. At 15 miles from your current location."

"Heading out now." Superman flew as fast as he could to the river. There, he found the person responsible, a human-looking person wearing horned helmet. In his right hand, he held a polearm burning with blood red energy. "Magog."

"Kryptonian, at last." Magog smiled. "I knew these pieces of junk wouldn't be a challenge for you, so I got them to attack this city to draw you out of your hiding hole."

"Threatening civillians just to get my attention?" Superman replied. "And here I thought someone named Magog would actually have a sense of honor."

"It is irrelevant now." Magog said. "After all, I mounted this little show just to beat the life out of you!" Magog rushed at Superman, hitting him with both fists. Superman felt to the ground and Magog attempted to stab him with his polearm. Acting quickly, Superman blasted him with a beam of heat vision, throwing him into an empty office building. Before using his heat vision, Superman had used his X-ray vision to make sure there was not anyone in the building before hitting Magog.

Superman flew to the building and engaged Magog in melee combat. He hit Magog two times in the face, but Magog dodged a third hit and slashed Superman's face with his polearm. Then, he kicked Superman in the chest, throwing him to the floor. Magog unleashed a powerful energy blast from his polearm. The beam was inaccurate, however, disintegrating everything in the room. Superman dodged it by hovering and rushed at Magog, throwing him out of the building. As Magog was thrown across the air, he regained momentum and flew away. Superman quickly gave chase.

Meanwhile in the ground, Lois and Jimmy were watching the whole fight. From a safe distance, of course. "Are you getting this, Jimmy?" said Lois, hiding behind a wrecked car.

"That Magog guy moves fast!" Jimmy answered, taking many photos as he could.

"How do you know that's Magog?"

"I don't know, all Magogs look alike." Lois gave him a blank stare.

Superman grabbed Magog by the collar, but Magog kicked towards a building wall. He attempted to hit Superman again, but the Man of Steel slammed him against another building wall, running him against it. Magog attacked Superman with his staff, but Superman parried each blow with his arms, avoiding the blade. Then, Magog shot Superman at point-blank range, launching towards the streets below. As Superman laid on the ground, Magog attempted to stab him but Superman dodged the hit at the last him. Then, Superman kicked Magog in the face and threw him to the ground. Grabbing him by the collar, Superman punched him in the face three times. It was a knockout.

As Superman stood over his unconscious adversary, Lois and Jimmy arrived at the scene, shortly followed by police cars, fire engines and ambulances.

"Superman!" shouted Lois with a tone of concern.

"Miss Lane, Jimmy; always on time." Superman replied as Lois and Jimmy walked towards him. The three stared at the unconscious Magog.

"What was that Magog wannabe doing here?" asked Jimmy as he kicked Magog in the head.

"He was the one responsible for the robot attack." Superman answered. "And he is also one of the assassins Magog sent after me."

"Assassins?" Jimmy was startled.

"Long story." Superman and Lois said at the same time.

An hour later, the cleaning operations had begun. While Superman was fighting Magog, the Metropolis Police Department had joined forces with the local U.S. Army platoon to organize a counterattack, defeating what remained of the robots. The U.S. Army had taken custody of Magog and what remained of the robots, correctly guessing of their alien origin. Medical teams and rescue parties were busy tending to the people caught in the attack. While some people were wounded during the invasion, Superman intervened before any casualties happened. Also, Superman explained to Lois and Jimmy that Mongul had put a bounty on his head. Granted, Lois already knew that but Jimmy was not a secret keeper.

"So, you're saying Mongul was the guy who sent Parasite and Mongul?" asked Jimmy.

"Yes." Superman replied.

"Why? What does he want?"

"I don't know, but I plan to figure out." Lois had written everything in her notebook and, skilled reporter that she was, knew of the connections between Parasite and Magog. "Now, if you excuse me, I'll go help in the cleanup."

"Haven't you seen Clark?" asked Jimmy.

"Don't worry, Jimmy." answered Superman. "I made sure he escaped. He said he was going to do some interviews with people on the streets." Superman flew away while Lois took her phone out of her purse.

"Come on, Jimmy." Lois said as they walked away. "Perry will want to hear this."


End file.
